Opponent Surreptitiously Picks Up Your Ball

[allenc]

This is mostly a bad beat story because I'm pretty sure there is no rule covering it, but I'm posting in the rules forum just in case I can get a second opinion.

I was playing a stroke play tournement the other week and hit a tree next to the green on a par three.  Nobody could see the ball rebound so I decided to play a provisional even though it looked like I'd be right next to the green.  When we approached, the search part went out and nobody found my ball after a couple minutes.  I looked for another couple minutes while they finished the hole then gave up and holed out my provisional.  That ball was no picknick either and I ended up with a 7 on the hole (gratuitous whine).

A couple holes later I discovered my lost ball in the back of my golf cart!  My first though was that it somehow landed there on a ricochet but that was obviously insane so I asked my cart partner.  He said he found it in a tree on the hole where I lost my ball.  He apologized and said he didn't know I was playing that brand.   WTF LMAO AYFKM GIJOE BRB!?!?  What ball did he think I was playing?  He obviously just didn't know.  He specifically is looking for my ball, finds one right where I hit it, and puts it in his pocket without telling me because I just don't have the look of a Snell guy I guess.  Still I don't think it was done maliciously because he left it in plain view in my cart.

Anyway, rant over, there didn't seem like there was much I could do for my score at that point but I thought there might be a penalty for him.  We told the official and he didn't mention one nor have I ever heard of such a rule.  It does seem like there should be something to discourage such an action.  Is there?

Edited January 16, 2016 by allenc
tense

[Abu3baid]

I can't imagine that there not be a rule preventing someone from touching opponents ball..  Basically that would mean I could on any gig em hole pick up ball and put it in pocket and the other guy can deal with lost ball.. Silly right?

[turtleback]

4 minutes ago, Abu3baid said:

I can't imagine that there not be a rule preventing someone from touching opponents ball..  Basically that would mean I could on any gig em hole pick up ball and put it in pocket and the other guy can deal with lost ball.. Silly right?

I would think that 1-2 covers it nicely and the offending player gets DQed.

Intent may be an issue, but for an act as clueless as was described in the OP I wouldn't have any problem DQing the guy.  

[Dormie1360]

Here's what I know.

As far as another player purposely touching or moving another player's ball at rest.

Stroke play no penalty, unless he was your partner. (R18-2, R18-4)  Match play 1 stroke penalty if it was done other than in a search. (R18-3)

If the committee decided, (e.g. your could prove) a player purposely hid another player's ball, the committee could DQ the player under R33-7.

R1-2 doesn't apply to this type of "influence" on a ball. 

Edited January 16, 2016 by Dormie1360

[DrvFrShow]

I was in a tournament last fall. I was having a good round but on the 12th hole things fell apart. I flared my tee shot right about 200 yds out. Findable. Definitely findable. When I got there, the place was covered in leaves. No ball. So back to the tee. 3rd shot.Now the rest of my foursome advanced to that area. I flared my tee shot again. Figuring that since three women were in the area that someone up there saw it. I drove back to the area. Nope. Everyone was chatting. No one was looking. So back to the tee for my 5th shot which I also flared.  I hit a Titleist Velocity I'd marked with my name. Now knowing that they didn't give a **** about things, I hit two provisionals. One finally landed in the fairway for my 7th shot. When I got to it and after I hit my 9 iron to the green, one of the ladies handed my my Titleist Velocity. 

"Where was it?"

"In the rough on the edge of the fairway."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"We're off pace."

Granted that I probably would have ended up with an 9 instead of an 11, and the hole sucked, but that wasn't the point.

I allowed that to get into my head and it messed me up on the next hole. 

[Gator Hazard]

1 hour ago, DrvFrShow said:

I was in a tournament last fall. I was having a good round but on the 12th hole things fell apart. I flared my tee shot right about 200 yds out. Findable. Definitely findable. When I got there, the place was covered in leaves. No ball. So back to the tee. 3rd shot.Now the rest of my foursome advanced to that area. I flared my tee shot again. Figuring that since three women were in the area that someone up there saw it. I drove back to the area. Nope. Everyone was chatting. No one was looking. So back to the tee for my 5th shot which I also flared.  I hit a Titleist Velocity I'd marked with my name. Now knowing that they didn't give a **** about things, I hit two provisionals. One finally landed in the fairway for my 7th shot. When I got to it and after I hit my 9 iron to the green, one of the ladies handed my my Titleist Velocity. 

"Where was it?"

"In the rough on the edge of the fairway."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"We're off pace."

Granted that I probably would have ended up with an 9 instead of an 11, and the hole sucked, but that wasn't the point.

I allowed that to get into my head and it messed me up on the next hole. 

That's clearly crossing a line and I would have told the rules officials when handing in my scorecard. She should have been disqualified for doing that. Off pace? Would have been faster for you to play that ball than go back to tee again. That's really dirty. 

[DrvFrShow]

I thought so, too. I did mention this to the rules official. She had a blow up on 17 and that knocked her out of the prize money.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, DrvFrShow said:

I thought so, too. I did mention this to the rules official. She had a blow up on 17 and that knocked her out of the prize money.

You should have taught her a lesson for the next time. What if she does it again? Protecting the field sometimes means future fields too.

[bkuehn1952]

On 1/16/2016 at 1:06 PM, allenc said:

... A couple holes later I discovered my lost ball in the back of my golf cart!...  My first though was that it somehow landed there on a ricochet but that was obviously insane so I asked my cart partner.  He said he found it in a tree on the hole where I lost my ball.  He apologized and said he didn't know I was playing that brand.   WTF LMAO AYFKM GIJOE BRB!?!?  What ball did he think I was playing?  He obviously just didn't know.  He specifically is looking for my ball, finds one right where I hit it, and puts it in his pocket without telling me because I just don't have the look of a Snell guy I guess.  Still I don't think it was done maliciously because he left it in plain view in my cart.

I hear you.  Had a similar issue years ago where my ball was 3 feet from the fairway in long rough and a player in our group knew it was there but thought ...

The take away for all of us is to announce at the start of the search that we are looking for a "SuperGolf Long 3 with a red mark under the 3."  Yes, some jerk might find it and put it in his pocket.  At least when you see him put it in his bag, you have something to discuss with the committee (assuming he lives long enough to finish the round!).

[mchepp]

One of the etiquette rules that we should teach new golfers is not to pick up stray golf balls unless number one there is absolutely no one around and the ball is unhittable (meaning in tall weeds up against a fence or something), the ball looks like it had been in the elements a while (and even in this case one should be really careful) or in a lake or out of bounds.

Probably just a good rule of thumb to leave a ball be. 

[Fourputt]

16 hours ago, mchepp said:

One of the etiquette rules that we should teach new golfers is not to pick up stray golf balls unless number one there is absolutely no one around and the ball is unhittable (meaning in tall weeds up against a fence or something), the ball looks like it had been in the elements a while (and even in this case one should be really careful) or in a lake or out of bounds.

Probably just a good rule of thumb to leave a ball be. 

Yeah.  Even though it's not in the rules, a player should use the known or virtual certain measure before picking up a ball.  I've seen a Pro V in the first cut of rough next to the fairway, and even with a perfect view of anyplace that it could possibly have come from, I left it lie there and played on.  It just seemed so unlikely that it could be lost in plain view like that.  Granted that it could have taken a weird bounce that the owner didn't see or suspect and ended up lost, I still left it to be picked up by someone with fewer scruples than I have.